


Kind

by Unicorn32442



Series: One-shots to help me sleep [3]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Crack, Fluff, He saves random birds, Kindness, M/M, Nico is kind, Not really a crack but I guess it can be seen that way, You can't convince me otherwise, birdhouses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:14:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24666694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unicorn32442/pseuds/Unicorn32442
Summary: I kinda don't want to spoil this and I don't really know what it is but I had the idea and it was too cute not to write idk tell me what yall think
Relationships: Annabeth Chase & Jason Grace, Annabeth Chase & Nico di Angelo, Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Jason Grace/Piper McLean, Nico di Angelo & Jason Grace, Nico di Angelo & random bird, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Series: One-shots to help me sleep [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1669606
Comments: 1
Kudos: 126





	Kind

**Author's Note:**

> wow this ended up being longer than I planned

Nico marched into the dining pavilion with purpose. Heads turned, staring at him in confusion, but he only scowled at them. He couldn’t think about how everyone was looking at him right now, he had a job to do. The Ghost King tried to push down his anxiety, even though he hadn’t attempted any kind of task like this one in years. It would be difficult with all these people here, but he could do this. He needed to do this.

There were only about fifteen kids there, most younger than Nico but a few his age and maybe one older than him. He didn’t really recognize any of them, but then again he didn’t really know anyone at camp yet other than the Apollo cabin. Since it was early afternoon and not mealtime, they all sat at the same table, evidently having been talking before Nico came in. Annabeth stood at the head of the table, the only one not staring at him, but Nico could recognize the confusion on her face. Annabeth was kind of his friend now, and she had been making an effort to be kinder to him and teaching the other campers to do the same, which Nico appreciated. 

“Hey, Nico.” She spoke slightly uncertainly, but mostly friendly as he approached the table. “Did you need something, or-”

“Yes.”

She sat down at the end of the table and he sat across from her, trying his best to ignore the other campers. A few had resumed their conversations, but most were still staring and “discretely” eavesdropping on his and Annabeth’s conversation.

“What is it?” She asked, looking genuinely concerned now, which was probably because of Nico’s expression. He was sure his face conveyed how much he didn’t want to be there.

Nico squeezed his eyes shut, trying to summon the courage to spit out the words. He wished he didn’t have to ask for help, but he really wasn’t sure how to complete this particular task and she had been at camp the longest. As much as he hated it, he needed her aide.

“I, um…” He looked around the table, at the assorted scissors, glue sticks, wood pieces, felt strips, and colored paper splayed out across it. 

“Is something wrong?” She seemed unsettled by his hesitation, and he knew he had to just say it before he worried her more.

“No, just-” He paused as a soft wind blew through the pavilion and knocked over the sign set up at the table, labeled ‘Arts and Crafts’. “I need to build a birdhouse.”

* * *

-72 hours earlier-

* * *

Nico often took walks in the woods. He found they were a nice place to go when he needed to get out of his stuffy cabin but also didn’t want to interact with other humans. He rarely saw another face among the trees, other than a few dryads, and there were paths to follow so he didn’t get lost. He had always liked the smells and the sounds in this part of the camp and the occasional monster fight didn’t hurt either. Nico liked to exercise his sword-fighting skills.

Today, Nico was so lost in the sounds of the forest, the birds singing and leaves shuffling, that he didn’t notice he had walked a bit farther than he usually did. 

He did, however, notice a small  _ thump _ sound, not too far to the right of him. It was so light, anyone else would’ve ignored it. But Nico was much more paranoid then anyone else, so he strayed from the path slightly to investigate.

There was a particularly thin tree that Nico was sure the sound had come from. Slowly and carefully, he took a tiny step forward to peer behind the tree and let out a tiny gasp. This was not what he was expecting and he was not equipped for this.

Lying splayed out at the base of the tree, was a little songbird. Its feathers were a beautiful variety of browns, reds, and whites. He wondered briefly if it was a finch (Nico was not much of a birdwatcher) before he noticed it’s wing twitch.

Nico’s eyes widened. Was it still alive? He checked it’s death aura and confirmed that yes, the bird was somehow not dead after ramming headfirst into a tree. He kneeled down next to it, still not quite sure how to handle this situation but wanting to help the little animal (finch?).

It’s wing looked broken, but its little head had taken most of the impact. Could birds get concussions? Nico hoped not. He was definitely not qualified for this, but he knew someone who might be.

He gently scooped up the tiny bird, which had gone unconscious but definitely wasn’t dead. A breeze blew through the trees and Nico shivered, holding the bird in his coat to keep it warm. The cold fall weather would not help the situation.

After the three days he had spent in the infirmary (which had turned into seven because he was in even worse shape than Will thought), he wasn’t really supposed to shadow travel. But the son of Apollo had recently granted him permission to use the power if he absolutely needed too. Nico wasn’t sure if Will would be mad at him for using it to save a bird, but he definitely knew that if he tried to run to the infirmary he wouldn’t make it in time.

Nico stepped into the shadow of the tree that the finch ran into and appeared at the entrance to the infirmary. It wasn’t quite enough to make him pass out right away, but he did feel extremely tired and strangely compelled to lay down on the floor and fall asleep. 

He pushed the door open wearily, and the bird suddenly felt like it weighed a hundred pounds. He kept it hidden in his coat, battling against the urge to close his eyes.

“Nico? What’s wrong?” Will rushed over to him, and Nico was relieved to realize they were alone. “Did you shadow travel again?”

Nico nodded wearily, stumbling as Will took his arm to keep him upright. 

“Why?” He glanced down at Nico’s hand, hidden in his coat. “Are you hurt? Let me see your hand.”

Nico was too tired to explain, so he just slowly pulled his hand out of his coat and held the bird out to Will.

Will furrowed his eyebrows, hesitating for a moment. “Why do you have a dead bird?”

“Not dead,” Nico muttered. He watched as Will’s face slowly morphed from confusion to realization to something Nico didn’t recognize right away. Was that...adoration? Will was looking at Nico with utter adoration as he took the tiny bird from his hands. 

“Why don’t you lay down, Nico?” Will was smiling now, which just made Nico even more confused. Didn’t he see that this finch was in need of immediate medical attention?

“But the-”

“I’ll fix the bird, I promise. But you look exhausted, take a nap.” Will brought Nico over to a cot, assuring him that the bird would be fine, and smiled softly as Nico drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Nico woke up confused. Not in the usual,  _ WhereAmIWhat’sHappening _ kind of confused but more of a  _ WhyIsThereABirdSittingOnMyChest _ kind of confused.

“Oh, you’re awake.” Will, who had been sitting at his desk doing paperwork, rushed over to Nico’s bedside. “Don’t worry, you haven’t been asleep for long, only like an hour.” 

Nico looked at the bird again. It looked back at him from its perch on his chest.

“You brought her in because she was hurt, remember?”

Ah. Nico nodded. That explained why there was a bird here, but he still didn’t know why the bird was sitting on him.

“I opened the door to let her go, but she just flew over to you and refused to leave.” Will gently stroked the bird’s head.

“She did? Why would she do that?” Nico wanted to sit up, so he laid his hand in front of the bird as an experiment. To his surprise, she hopped up onto his hand and allowed him to sit up.

“You saved her life, duh.” Will was looking at him with that weird adoring expression again.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Nico scowled at Will as the finch hopped up onto Nico’s shoulder and nestled into his jacket.

Will hesitated, smiling again. “Because you’re the only person I know who would not only check to see if a tiny dead bird was actually dead but also pass out for an hour to save its life.”

For a moment, Nico just blinked at him in surprise, before narrowing his eyes. Will might be making fun of him. “What are you trying to say, Solace?” 

The young doctor rolled his eyes. “I’m trying to say you’re kind, sunshine. It’s an admirable quality.”

Nico was at a loss for words. No one in this camp had ever called him kind. Rude, yes. Shady, yes. Creepy, yes. But never kind. He wasn’t kind, was he? Now that he thought about it, he’d always just assumed he wasn’t kind along with everyone else.

Yes, he could be very rude, but he did genuinely try not to be. He just got angry or scared sometimes. So maybe he didn’t really think of himself as rude, but he wasn’t kind either. He couldn’t be-

“Wow, I’ve never seen you at such a loss for words.” Will was sitting on the foot of the bed now. 

“You’re wrong, I’m not-”

“What? Not kind? Nico, I hate to break it to you, but you’re one of the kindest people I know. Also, the fact that it’s taking you so long to process that is slightly worrying.”

Nico wanted to deny that, but then they would have to keep talking about it and he didn’t want to do that, so instead, he changed the subject.

“How did you fix the bird?”

“Just a little healing magic, it wasn’t too hard.”

“Do birds get concussions?” Nico knew that was kind of a weird question, but he just had to ask.

Will smiled. “Yes, but they recover from them very fast. Her concussion was much easier to fix than the wing, but I promise she’s ok now.”

Nico knew that he had asked the question, but he had kinda stopped listening about halfway through Will’s sentence, opting to stroke the finch instead. Most animals didn’t like him, but he remembered having a pet bird when he was little. Eighty years ago Bianca asked their mother for a pet. He wondered what happened to the little bird after the family moved to America. Maybe they left it with a friend?

“She’s pretty.” He muttered, more to himself than Will. The bird was still sitting on his shoulder and seemed to have no intention of leaving.

* * *

After that, the bird followed Nico around everywhere. Sometimes she would fly off into the forest to find food and every time Nico wondered if she would come back. She always did.

Nico was sitting at the dining pavilion for breakfast eating with the Apollo cabin like he always did. Jason was sitting next to him, too.

Jason wasn’t always at Camp Halfblood, but every time he came by he would try to spend time with Nico. It was weird, having a friend to check up on him like that.

“So the other day this kid asked me if I was the most powerful camper,” Jason mentioned, through bites of an omelet.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. Then she was really confused when I said no.” Jason chuckled. “I mean, big three kids are pretty powerful but…”

“Annabeth.”

“People totally underestimate her. It’s little things, too. I challenged her to a coin flip once and she won eight times out of ten.” 

Nico snickered. Statements like that used to make him painfully jealous, but he didn’t envy Annabeth anymore. Her boyfriend was nowhere near as great as Nico’s.

“I’m surprised you even won two, with-”   
Nico was cut off by the sound of Jason’s fork clattering to the ground. He was staring at Nico with wide eyes. More accurately, at Nico’s hair.

“What?”

Jason just continued staring.

“Jason, what-”  _ chirp _ . Nico sighed “...there’s a bird on my head, isn’t there?” 

Jason nodded, hesitantly.

Nico sighed again, smiling just a tiny bit. He stuck his finger out and the bird hopped down from where it was nesting in Nico’s hair and perched on his finger.

“So...you gonna explain, or-”

“I found her half-dead in the woods and brought her to Will and now she follows me around.”

“...oh.” Jason smiled. 

“Why do people smile when I say that?”

“Why wouldn’t people smile when you tell them you saved a bird.”

“Wouldn’t you have saved the bird?” Nico furrowed his eyebrows.

“I probably wouldn’t have noticed it was there, to be honest,” Jason confessed, to Nico’s confusion. Jason caught Piper’s eye across the room. “Sorry, Nico, I gotta go. See you later.” 

* * *

“What if she hits another tree?” Nico wondered out loud as he stared out over the strawberry fields from his position under a tree, the finch sitting on his head. At first, he tried to make it perch on his finger instead, but sometimes the bird refused to leave his hair. Nico was beginning to accept it.

“What do you mean?”

Will’s voice made him jump and the bird’s feathers fluffed. “Will! Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

“I’ve been sitting here for five minutes.” Will scooted a bit closer to Nico, smiling when he saw the bird. “Do you really think it’ll run into another tree?”

Nico blushed, not intending for his question to be heard. “Well, she ran into a tree once before, right?”

Will thought for a second, looking at the bird. “She only really goes into the woods to get food, right?”

“Well, I assume she has a nest she sleeps in somewhere, but yeah.”   
“Why don’t you make her a birdhouse?”

* * *

Nico was still waiting for Annabeth to answer when the bird found him again, sitting on his head. “So, it’s kind of a long story…” Nico was blushing and by extension, the finch was getting flustered.

“Oh, right. Jason told me about this. You want a birdhouse for it?” She dug through a few boxes sitting by her feet and pulled out the biggest birdhouse she could find. 

“Um, y-yeah.”

She set the little house in front of him. “You should paint it.”   
All of Nico’s confidence walking in here was gone, even though he barely started out with any. This was usually the part where he curled into himself while Will saved the conversation for him. But Will was swamped at the infirmary and Nico just couldn’t stop thinking about the finch running into a tree and no one stopping to help her.

“Here. Take some paints and a brush. You can do it here or in your cabin or whatever, just remember to bring the stuff back when you’re done. Also, I think that Chiron has some birdseed in the Big House.” Annabeth smiled softly, handing Nico a little box of supplies. 

People were staring at Nico again, so instead of saying something he just nodded gratefully. 

“What’s her name?” 

“Oh, um, it’s Bella.” Nico had never said the name out loud, but he’d been calling her that in his head for a while and he thought it fit.

* * *

Nico painted the birdhouse with the same colors as Bella’s feathers. Pretty reds, browns, and whites. The bird built a nest on top of the Hades cabin roof. She was allowed inside the cabin, of course, which was why Nico always left the window open. Hazel fell in love with Bella immediately. Once, Nico saw her perched on top of his Hades figurine, and guessed Bianca would’ve loved the little bird too.

**Author's Note:**

> I think I'm just gonna start adding Bella in all my one-shots to confuse people.


End file.
